Jimmy Savile
Beyond the cringe
Big Brother is Nineteen Eighty-Four rewritten by Aldous Huxley. The detail that George Orwell got wrong is that far from…
The BBC is self-destructing
There are still 27 people left in the British Isles – at the time of writing – who are unaware…
Weirder and weirder
The only impersonation I can do is my Jimmy Savile impersonation. This is not uncommon among people of my generation:…
CCHQ’s unfortunate Jimmy Savile link
Oh dear. Just last week, on the day that Boris Johnson raised National Insurance, it was pointed out to the bright…
PMQs: Boris doubles down on Jimmy Savile claims
Today’s PMQs suggests that some of the immediate heat has gone the partygate crisis, if only temporarily. Sir Keir Starmer…
Darkness visible
Translating the story of Jimmy Savile to stage or screen is a creative minefield, says Jonathan Maitland, who knows from first-hand experience
Unwelcome news
A character in David Hare’s Skylight claims she has at last found contentment by no longer opening newspapers or watching…
The grand inquisitor
I always want to know more about Louis Theroux, which is odd, since I’ve seen so much of him already.…
We’ve made morons of our police force
I never believed Carl Beech’s allegations that he had suffered multiple depravities, including sexual abuse, at the hands of various…
Portrait of the week
Home An official analysis by the Cabinet Office said that if Britain left the EU it would lead to a…
Doing the wrong thing
Like The Revenant and The Big Short, Spotlight is yet another Oscar contender ‘based on true events’ — although it…
Ted talk
There was a grim inevitability that the name Edward Heath would one day be trawled up in connection with allegations…
Who’d have thought that about Ted? Well…
In another blow for freedom and the protection of the vulnerable, Conservative MP Mark Spencer has suggested that anti-terror legislation…
Savile exposed
Ho hum. Bit icky. Not bad. Hardly dazzling. The lukewarm response to An Audience With Jimmy Savile has astonished me.…
Diary
Off to prison to visit a writer friend, first jailed led some years ago for trying to find a hit…
His dark materials
Will Gore talks to the playwright who has brought Jimmy Savile’s crimes to the stage
The Spectator’s notes
David Cameron is taking a bit of trouble to unite his parliamentary party. Having built a coalition outside it last…
Portrait of the week
Home The man seen in several Islamic State videos of hostages being beheaded, nicknamed Jihadi John by the British press,…
Songs of praise for the BBC
In a ‘Dear Bill’ letter in Private Eye, an imaginary Denis Thatcher wrote off the BBC as a nest of…
What the doctor ordered
Sky1’s new hospital drama Critical (Tuesday) can’t be accused of making a timid start. Within seconds, an urgent request had…
Hoard games
Detectorists (BBC4) is a sad git’s niche comedy that would never have been commissioned if it hadn’t been written and…
Low life
Le tout Torquay was there, cramming into the Princess Theatre with a drink in each hand ten minutes after the…
Letters
Real help for those in pain Sir: The fickleness of existence is exemplified by the fact that being Tony Blair’s…
There’s no fighting paedophile panic. But I’ll try
As essay titles go, ‘On losing an argument with Tim Loughton MP’ may fail to catch the imagination; but there…
Long life
One problem from which I am confident I don’t suffer is paedophilia. I have always liked picking up babies and…
